
A
new paper proposes a roadmap for making mankind more resistant to radiation and
other forms of stress- and age-associated damage. “The cost of one productive
life year (PLY) for humans in space is likely to be much higher than on Earth
and efforts should be made to maximise PLYs of the colonists. High radiation is
among the first challenges that needs to be addressed and productive longevity
will likely be a side effect of increased radioresistance,” said Dr. Alex
Zhavoronkov, the founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, Inc. Although
considerable efforts are under way around the world to colonise the Moon and
Mars, these efforts are primarily focused on technological capabilities while
the ways to tackle space radiation have been ignored. The main components of
space radiation are solar particle events (SPE), geomagnetically trapped
radiation, and galactic cosmic radiation (GCR). Launching humans into space is
not only going to be very expensive but also medically challenging.
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